In advance of his first papal visit to the United States this week, Time this morning examines the clergy sex abuse challenge Pope Benedict will face here. But missing altogether from the analysis of that continuing crisis in the American Catholic Church is any discussion of then Cardinal Ratzinger's essential role in perpetuating it. Time […]

In presidential politics, when the going gets tough, the wannabe tough go for their guns. So almost exactly a year after failed Republican White House contender Mitt Romney comically declared himself a "hunter pretty much all my life," Hillary Clinton today bragged about her gunslinging past. Hoping to capitalize on Barack Obama's gaffe about "bitter" […]

Over the past several days, a flurry of stories has raised red flags about the prospects for state-based health care mandates. On Saturday, the AP reported that soaring costs are buffeting the pioneering insurance mandate program in Massachusetts. Just days earlier, the New York Times described a Massachusetts primary care system now swamped with new […]

On several occasions, I've suggested that the Obama-Clinton slugfest bears an uncanny resemblance to the 1984 Democratic race between Walter Mondale and Gary Hart. Now just two weeks out from what could be his make-or-break moment in Pennsylvania, Barack Obama may be about to relive Gary Hart's '84 New Jersey nightmare. Alas, the God and […]

Three new surveys released today document the steep descent of President Bush, and with him, the American economy. While Bush's approval rating reached a new low of 28% in the AP poll, three quarters of economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal believe that the United States is in a recession that has yet to […]

In order to secure the Republican presidential nomination, John McCain has reversed course on almost every issue he once held near and dear. Now with the general election contest underway, McCain is starting his predictable walk-back from the hard right abyss. Just days after proclaiming his adamant opposition to federal intervention in the housing market […]

Once in a rare while, a single image tells you everything to know about the American economy. On Wednesday, the New York Times featured a simple chart showing that President Bush has presided over the first post-World War II economic expansion in which Americans' median family income declined. If the American Dream is defined in […]

Over at the Weekly Standard, Michael Goldfarb takes the Obama campaign to task for deploying the "diversity police" during an appearance by Michelle Obama today at Carnegie Mellon University. But while the campaign staff's efforts to produce a multi-racial backdrop may have been ham-handed, they pale in comparison to the comic Republican attempts to create […]

In their testimony before Congress today, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker began painting a picture of American progress in Iraq. But even as the United States faces a diminishing threat from Al Qaeda thanks in part to former Sunni insurgents the U.S. has largely co-opted, American forces find themselves increasingly engaged in an […]

Just when it seemed John McCain had weathered the storm over endorser John Hagee's rabid anti-Catholicism, the Texas pastor announced his latest effort to accelerate Armageddon. In the face of U.S. policy opposing the expansion of Isaeli settlements in the West Bank, Hagee's Christian United for Israel (CUFI) announced a $6 million donation to help […]